42 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



some freshly discovered patent fodder, but simply by 

 selecting for breeding purposes those individuals that 

 most suited the breeder's purpose. The racing stallion 

 was kept which most resembled a greyhound, the 

 hog that most resembled a beer barrel, and the cow 

 that gave the best combination of milk and flesh. 

 The gardener produces the hundreds of new varieties 

 placed every year in the market by keeping the seeds 

 and propagating from any variety he may wish to 

 perpetuate, and these varieties are always spontane- 

 ously occurring. He perfects his stock by selecting 

 the seed only from the very best. 



The testimony not only of the learned but of those 

 who in their lives, unbiassed by any theory, have been 

 engaged in modifying breeds of animals and plants, 

 is unanimously in favour of the view that selection is 

 the only, or, at any rate, by far the most powerful 

 factor in producing racial change. So far these facts 

 have had little or no application to the question of 

 human race progress. People are still too much 

 biassed by archaic anthropocentric ideas ; they view 

 man by himself, under his own special laws, and 

 would often be shocked by an attempt to draw ob- 

 vious parallels between him and the lower animals. 

 Amongst the thinking few this attitude has changed, 

 and broader and sounder views are rapidly gaining 

 ground. 



People, too, are apt to feel what may be called a 



